Brisbane enforcer Payne Haas doesn’t care that Melbourne prop Stefano Utoikamanu thinks the Broncos are “stuck up” but welcomed his fellow NSW representative front-rower to say it again in Sunday night’s NRL grand final.
Utoikamanu ignited grand final week on Monday morning when he told reporters there were plenty of Broncos he wanted to “run at” in the decider at Accor Stadium declaring “there’s a lot of people I don’t like in this team”.
Rather than be worried about Utoikamanu’s comments, Haas said the Broncos were only concerned about themselves and their grand final preparations.
“They can say what they want, but we’ll be out there on Sunday, and we’ll see if that’s still going to be thrown around,” he said.
“We know who we are. They got this certain image of us down there, so it is what it is. We’ll see what happens.”
The Broncos qualified for their second grand final in three years with a thrilling 16-14 weekend win over Penrith at Suncorp Stadium, with the victory ending the Panthers’ hopes of five successive premierships.
Haas will welcome the return of fellow star forward Pat Carrigan for the grand final after he missed the preliminary final win through suspension.
“When you bring someone like Patty into the team it gives you lots of confidence and belief,” Haas said.
“He’s rested for about three weeks now, so he’ll be ready to go and can’t wait to play. I know he’ll do a job for us.”
Haas said he wanted to enjoy grand final week more than he did in the build-up to the 2023 decider, which Broncos lost to 26-24 to Penrith after seemingly having the game sealed when they led the Panthers 24-8 with less than 20 minutes remaining.
“I felt like there were a lot of us who probably got caught up in it a bit, but we’ve learned our lessons now, and just really excited for the weekend,” he said before adding that he wasn’t thinking about what happened two years ago in the grand final.
“We’re new team now, and we’re just focusing on the present, and focusing on our own preparation.”
The Broncos beat the Storm 30-14 when the teams met earlier this month in the final round of the regular season.
However, Haas said the Broncos would not read too much into that win because it was against a Melbourne team missing star hooker Harry Grant.
“We have great battles, and they’re always up for this game, and we too. We love (playing against) them, and the rivalry we have. It’s a great challenge,” he said.
Originally published as NRL war of words erupts as Broncos star Payne Haas fires back at ‘stuck up’ swipe